Willy Wind's Birthday Surprise (Paperback)

While Willy Wind is hard at work on his wind farm, his friends Sammy Sun, Rosie Rainbow, Flo Snow, Ronny Rain, Harry Hail, and Colin Cloud are working hard too ― planning a surprise party for their pal. Always kind and inclusive, they’ve taken a chance on inviting the Pollutants to the party too. As they look back on their own birthdays throughout the year, they describe the various seasons, making this a lovely way to introduce this early learning topic to young kids. Willy Wind’s Birthday Surprise is the eighth book in the Weatherbies series of curriculum-aligned picture books that use these lovable weather characters to make it easy for young children to remember key concepts about the world around us. It models pro-social behaviours such as compassion, nurturing friendships and taking care of the planet.

This book is also available in Irish as Gearóid Gaoth agus a Lá Breithe. Choose one book or get the pair for parallel learning or shared reading in mixed-language groups.

Key Features

• ⁠Engaging eco story by Yvonne Fleming for ages 2–6

• Colourful pictures by James Salenga to enthral little ones

• Lovable, memorable characters modelling pro-social behaviours and values for young readers

• English or Irish editions available for parallel reading or shared reading in mixed-language groups

• Aligned to The World Around Us and other key Areas of Learning in the Early Years and Foundation Stage curriculum

• Aligned to the four Aistear Early Childhood Curriculum Framework themes of wellbeing, identity and belonging, communicating, and exploring and thinking

• Aligned to 12 global Eco Schools themes

• Created by The Weatherbies Ltd, UK STEM Ambassadors, the official Early Years partners of Eco Schools NI and partners of Twinkl NI

Entertainment and education for young children

Written by Yvonne Fleming and illustrated by James Salenga, the colourful picture books in the Weatherbies series are perfect for introducing eco topics and other concepts to Early Years Foundation Stage children. The Weatherbies are a lovable community of friends who live, learn and play in the wonderful world of Skytown. Through their interactions with the world around them, each other, and the pesky Pollutants, the Weatherbies gang teach pro-social behaviours and values such as co-operation and responsibility.

Language, music and learning

The book series is also available in Irish, and can be used as parallel texts, for children reading them side by side, or for non-Irish-speaking parents to read along with children learning Irish.

Learning is easier when music is involved! Kids can sing along with accompanying songs, The Willy Wind Song and Seasons Come & Seasons Go on streaming platforms. The album Sing a Song with the Weatherbies, featuring Tony Kearney, introduces the Weatherbies gang to little music lovers, and Eco Tunes by the Weatherbies, featuring Clare Galway, has a whole host of new eco-topical songs such as Put It In the Bin, Little Honey Bees, Rosie Rainbow's Recycling Song and many more.

​​Deepen the learning from the book with the Seasons episode of the companion series Fun Topics with the Weatherbies.

Trusted educational partnerships

The Weatherbies are the official Early Years partners for Eco Schools NI, part of the global Eco Schools network delivering the Eco Schools programme by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), one of the world's largest environmental education organisations. The book series and companion materials are aligned to the global Eco Schools themes of biodiversity & nature, climate change, energy, food, global citizenship, health & wellbeing, litter, marine & coast, school grounds, transport, waste, and water. Access the full range of resources to go with this book on the Weatherbies website.

The Weatherbies are UK STEM Ambassadors, are partnered with global teaching resource providers Twinkl and are learner members of Learnovate in Trinity College Dublin.

Yvonne Fleming is a wife, mother, childminder, and children’s author who created The Weatherbies from a passion for doodling on paper. Whilst sitting in the garden colouring with the children on a sunny day, she looked up at the sky and began sketching weather formations. Inspired by the much-loved environmentally friendly books and TV show The Wombles, Yvonne wanted to help children form a stronger connection with the weather they see and feel every day. By personifying weather formations, she believes children can be encouraged to take an active interest in climate awareness and sustainability.

Yvonne gave her new characters names and began inventing little stories for her own young children and the others she cared for. She called her creations The Weatherbies ―  Sammy Sun, Rosie Rainbow, Colin Cloud, Ronny Rain, Flo Snow, Willy Wind, Barry Star, Harry Hail, Tommy Thunder, the Lightning Twins, and Mary Moon ― and introduced the Pollutants to provide teachable moments for young children.

Knowing songs are a great way to help kids remember information, and wanting to introduce them to a wide range of musical genres, Yvonne straight away enlisted composer and music publisher husband Peter to co-write and produce a variety of entertaining songs to accompany her stories. When son Steven, who grew up listening to the stories and songs, embarked on a university degree in interactive media, Yvonne made another of her dreams come true by bringing him onto the team to create the graphic designs and educational videos used in schools and homes, making The Weatherbies Ltd an imaginative and fulfilling multimedia family business.